Thank you for joining this Q1 FY 2026 earnings conference call of Zen Technologies Limited. The results and investor presentation have been uploaded on the stock exchange. To take you through the results of this quarter and answer your questions, we have with us today Mr. Ashok Atluri, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Afzal Malkani, Chief Financial Officer, and Ms. Abhilasha Atluri, Investor Relations Officer. We'll be starting the call with a brief overview of the performance, which will be followed by the Q&A session. I would like to remind you all that everything said in this call that reflects any outlook for the future, which can be construed as a forward-looking statement, must be viewed in conjunction with the risks and uncertainty that the company faces. With that said, I'll hand over the call to Mr. Ashok Atluri for the opening remarks.
Good morning, fellow investors and friends. So this quarter has, you know, just to come to the brass tacks, this quarter has been kind of disappointing even for us. And we expected a little better than what we had done and around, I think, INR 60 crore or so, you know, because of some design changes asked by our end user. Because of the evolving reality of war, we had to accommodate those changes in specifications, and our execution has spilled over for that particular product into Q2. And so we expect that it will affect in the Q2. But overall, our feeling is that the government is very serious. And again, you know, while Operation Sindoor has hastened some purchases, the regular purchases like simulators, you know, they took a little backstage kind of thing.
And so, but again, we do feel that the simulator that we set by H1, we should have another INR 650 crore. We still feel that the orders will come through by the end of September. But the reality is that the regular procurements were kind of a little slowed down because of the new emergency procurement happening after post Operation Sindoor. So, and one thing, you know, my bright spot in the whole thing, if you can say that, is that subsidiary ARI, you know, has been performing well. And we feel that this year, they will add almost INR 170 crore of top line to our turnover. That will be 100% subsidiary by the end of the year. Now we hold 76%, but it's transitioning. And the UTS will again at least add INR 80 crore, even if you were to take out our cross transactions.
So another expectation was EBITDA and PAT were in line with our expectations and what we had indicated to the customers. But so this is the overall picture. And I'll just turn to Afzal to run through the financials, and then I'll continue from there. Afzal, can you take over, please?
Yeah, sure, sir. So good morning, everyone. So as our CMD, Mr. Ashok Atluri, has mentioned that in Q1 FY 2026, the FY 2026 results reflects temporary execution timing adjustments with the quarter subdued revenue and profitability largely attributable to the deferral of a significant amount of worth of equipment shipment to Q2 FY 2026. Despite this softness, the consolidated performance was supported by the strong contributions from our subsidiaries, UTS and ARIPL. And now coming on to the results, let's begin with a quick update on standalone performance for the Q1 FY 2026. Our revenue from operations was INR 111 crore compared to INR 253 crore in Q1 FY 2025. The degrowth in percentage terms is around 55%. Our operational EBITDA for the Q1 FY 2026 decreased to INR 38.05 crore compared to INR 103.20 crore in Q1 FY 2025. Though our total EBITDA is more than 40%, but operational EBITDA is reduced to 34.26% compared to 40.64% in Q1 FY 2025.
Our profit after tax has decreased to INR 37.12 crore compared to INR 74 crore in the same period last year, and profit after tax in percentage terms is still 33.44% compared to 29.20% in Q1 FY 2025, so here there is an increase of around 4%. Out of our total revenues of INR 111 crore, INR 101 crore were contributed by the sale of equipment, while INR 9.78 crore came from our AMC business. Now coming on to the consolidated performance, our consolidated performance is much better than standalone performance, so our revenue from operation was INR 158 crore compared to INR 254 crore in Q1 FY 2025. The degrowth in percentage terms is 38%. Our operational EBITDA for the Q1 FY 2026 decreased to INR 64.70 crore compared to INR 111.35 crore in Q1 FY 2025. In percentage terms, operational EBITDA is 40.90%. It is above our benchmark of 35% compared to 43% in Q1 FY 2025.
Our consolidated profit after tax has decreased to INR 47.75 crore compared to INR 76.81 crore in the same period last year. Profit after tax in percentage terms is 30% compared to 30% in Q1 FY 2025, the same. With that, we conclude our opening remarks, and we would now like to open the floor for question and answer.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may click on the raise hand icon from the participant tab on your screen. We request our participants to please limit your questions to two per participant. Time permitting, you may come back in the queue for a follow-up question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Our first question is from Jai Chauhan from Trinetra Asset Managers. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, and thank you for the opportunity. So I just have one question. Given Zen's dominant position in anti-drone systems with IDDM qualification and successful field testing during Operation Sindoor, like how do you see the competitive moat evolving as more players enter this space? And what specific technological differentiators will maintain, you know, Zen's leadership in the next three to five years?
The one thing that has to do, again, in 2023, there were open tenders, IDDM category from Indian Air Force and the other tender from Indian Army. And in both the cases, we were the resultant single vendor. And again, at that point in time, there was no other player who was able to demonstrate what the Government of India needed in terms of wide-band requirement. Now, typically, wide-band, you know, most of the anti-drone systems that have been developed in the country, they are meant to handle commercial frequencies and not non-commercial frequencies. What Zen had done much earlier and a lot of R&D investment in anti-drone systems to expand the scope to be band independent, you know, just it doesn't matter which band, whether commercial or military or any other band, we should be able to detect and jam it.
That was a mandate that we had given because as Zen Technologies always said that, you know, it's not just winning RFPs, but winning wars for the country is important. And fortunately, at that point, they did go for wide-band because most of the customers were going only for commercial band. The Indian Armed Forces did go for wide-band, and they bought it. So what we see is even recently, very recently, a couple of months back, there was a, you know, demonstration of the system, the indigenous system. And still, to the best of, we did not come across any company that has indigenously designed and developed wide-band. So they are trying to cheat in terms of wide-band. You know, what they are saying is that so one of the guys was saying that, you know, listen, we are doing wide-band. I said, what do you mean by wide-band?
They said, like, you know, we do in the wide-band, we do 900, 2.4, and 5.8 GHz. That's no, in the wide-band, you have to do anything from 100 MHz to 6 GHz or 8 GHz, whatever the condition, so they're trying to play around with the word wide-band. Wide-band means anything, and to the best of my knowledge, none of these companies have that, so we stand, we still stand a good chance if they really go for this kind of the product with what is actually being used and will be used in future. We stand a good chance. There are a lot of people who are coming and saying, and by the way, when the last time the, you know, RFP was called, there were 12 people who came for the pre-bid, but only two came to the actual trial.
A lot of claimants were there even then in 2023 and 2025; they are still increased. But we will have to see who will actually come to the trial getting their equipment because the Government of India is very, very serious. And, you know, they are, if somebody gets foreign technology or some pretended technology and tries to sneakily qualify it as indigenous, the government will really, really go after them. And in 2023 also, and during the pre-bid meeting, a lot of people asked, how are you going to verify that the technology is IDDM, indigenously designed, developed, and manufactured? So the officer there was very, very clear. Listen, we are going to go through your source code, your software code, and you have to explain to us each major blocks in that. We may dig deep wherever we want.
Then you will compile in front of us the whole software, and then you will run the anti-drone system in front of us. And electronic, all the PCBs, designs, the Gerber files, everything will be taken. And we also want a GitHub, the version control system that you have in place, which when was it started, what were the different versions? Similarly for mechanical engineering, CAD drawings, exploded SolidWorks views, simulations which you have done. So I think with all these strict checks in place, Zen has a very, very good chance of getting substantial anti-drone system orders. So I think, yeah, that's the confidence we have. But only as things open up, we expect the tenders to come up pretty soon. And, you know, we'll see who are the participants. But again, they have to physically demonstrate it and prove that it's indigenously designed, developed, and manufactured.
I hope I answered your question, Jay.
Yes, I understood, understood. And sir, the core competency that you mentioned, is this product patented?
Yeah, so, you know, what we do is, in terms of patents, there is the technologies that can be easily copied and done. You know, we look at the product and you say, listen, this can be easily patented, this can be easily copied. You get an intuitive idea about it. Those kind of IPs typically patented by us. But when the IP is extremely cutting edge, like, you know, where the algorithms are very, very hard-fought, complex, we don't patent that because, you know, we don't want anybody, any foreign country to copy that and create that product. So yeah, so some parts are patented, but some parts are not patented due to the sensitivity in them. Yeah, but as you said, yeah, it is patented.
Thank you. Our next question is from CA Garvit Goyal of Seven Islands PMS. Please go ahead.
Hi, and all of you.
Yes, sir.
Hi, good morning, sir. First question is on the execution side. Like you mentioned, some of our contracts are deferring to Q2. So I want to understand here, like when you mentioned when you are writing in the PPT, like this year is going to be a muted year. So what does that mean? Like, is it in line with the FY 2025?
Yeah, so, you know, very frankly, that will all depend on the order book that we have by Q2, end of Q2. And we are not able to put a real figure onto this, whether it will be as much as or a little less or a little more. But yeah, but we are not able to put a figure on that. But again, you know, as I have been saying on many occasions that, you know, that our confidence of the overall revenue for the next three years, including this year, next FY 2026, 2027, 2028, we still feel very confident that we can achieve the 6,000+ growth target. But for this to your question, that we are not able to give the exact figure for this year at this point in time.
Okay. And you mentioned in the PPT, like we are expecting significant orders in the next couple of months, right? So what is the execution timeline for that existing order book and along with the orders that we are looking to get?
You know, the whatever orders that we are planning to get by Q2, our intention is to execute it within the same year. So that is what the preparation is going on. You know, again, there is a kind of, you know, because of the internal policy of the company, we don't buy the raw material in advance till we get the order, especially government orders. Even though it has never happened, we have seen companies going down where preemptively bought raw material in anticipation of orders because the order never came through and the companies went bankrupt. You know, so we are being cautious in the sense, but everything non-related to actual procurement, getting the drawings ready, every discussion with our vendors, making them ready for taking the orders from us, all that work is being done.
And so, you know, our anticipation is if these orders come, how much of it can be executed in the next two quarters, Q3 and Q4? Our ambition would be to execute all of it, but I think some of it will get into the Q1 of the next year.
Understood. And just to follow up on your reply, you mentioned about raw material procurement. Are you facing any challenges in terms of use of any rare earth metals, which is currently restricted by China?
Yeah, so, you know, we don't have any such problem in our products till now. And our raw material are clear as of now. So, you know, Chinese banning has not impacted us. But again, you know, once we place the orders, I think most of our products are electronic-based and, you know, China dependence is almost zero. So we will not be having any impact on that except our subsidiary Vector Technics. I think they may be having some impact on there because of the rare, you know, the magnets that you were talking about. But they are also working on creating alternate sources at this point in time. But for Zen's order book or order execution, it should not pose any problem.
Understood, sir. I'll turn back the floor, sir. Thank you very much and all the best for the question. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Dipen Vakil of PhillipCapital. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is, sir, in your presentation, you have mentioned that out of INR 750 crore of order books, INR 600 crore is from your core business, which we believe consists of simulators and ADS. So can you give us a breakup as to how much of it is simulator, ADS, and amongst the rest of INR 150 crore, what would be the breakup?
Sorry, this is the order that we are expecting in the Q2 you're talking about or?
No, no, no. The current order book, your current order book.
So yeah. So in that, I would say about, so if you take out the AMC out of that, that's about, you know, INR 200 and some crore. The actual anti-drone systems is INR 64 crore. And the training simulation is about INR 292 crore, I think. Yeah.
Got it, sir.
Yeah, yeah. INR 282. INR 282 crore is training simulators and anti-drone systems about 64. Yeah.
Got it. Sir, and now I wanted to understand a little bit more on your order wins. So you are expecting INR 650 crore of order wins in the next two months. So are those on the advanced stages of negotiation or there's a bigger pipeline which is at play and from which you're expecting INR 60 crore? Because this also excludes the emergency procurement as per your opening remarks.
That's right.
So yeah, so I wanted to understand a little bit more onto the ordering. So which segment are these purely from simulators or even the anti-drone system as a part of it?
So this is purely simulators. And, you know, so I'll tell you where we are is that, you know, we are the only, the last man standing as of now. So we think that because so the likelihood of order is coming is almost certain. There is no, we don't think there is anything in that. It is only when will they actually sign and give the order to us. So there is no other competitor in this at this point in time. So we expect that the order will come through. But again, you know, as I said earlier, because of the emergency procurement, this was a little slowed down or probably, you know, by now we would have got it. But otherwise, yeah, to your question, it was all simulator related and we are already the only person who has qualified.
And so our expectation is that we'll get the order for sure.
Got it, sir. Sir, and just a small follow-up on the previous participant's question. What would be the lead time for you from the time you win the order to commencing on the deliveries? Because since you mentioned that you will be executing most of the products in the same year itself, so I just wanted to understand the lead time from winning the order to execution.
Typically, the lead time is around four months for simulators, but anti-drone systems, a little larger, can go up to six months or a little more than that because of the electronics and certain components that need to be ordered. But otherwise, yeah, the maximum lead time for any raw material is typically four months and for simulators and six months for anti-drone systems.
Got it, sir. Thank you so much for answering my question and all the best for your INR 6,000 crore target.
Thanks, Dipen. I appreciate that.
Thank you. Our next question is from Akshay Patel from AK Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello, sir. Am I audible?
Yes, please.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity, sir. Sir, my first question is that despite the fact that we are the single vendor for Government of India and currently for the past one year, we have not got significant order inflow. So what might be the reason for the same?
So, you know, one thing is that the simulators are in the process. They are being processed, and the orders, actually orders, have been very, very slow. They have been reduced quadruple. We think that the cycle has slowed down a bit. You know, I think intuition says that, and even the facts say that these were orders that we should have probably got a little earlier. And again, as I said, that, you know, government has some emergency things to do. So the regular procurement is a little on the slow track. But again, you know, this should have happened much, much earlier, much earlier to even operations in do. And we should have had a very good order book position, and the execution should have started by now.
But again, you know, we understand in the case of anti-drone systems. We understand that it's a very, very evolving field. And as we speak, government is making changes to the specs because these now they have been proven in war and the kind of threats they actually happen and the ability of the country to have this technology in-house because everything that's happening is evolving. You know, earlier we used to think soft kill is enough because all the drones are controlled from ground. Sorry, from ground to, you know, to the drone, there's always a control going on. And then we did the soft jamming where you can, you know, we can block the frequencies by using jammers. But, you know, then the, you know, the drone guys came up with another thing called autonomous drone that could go just by, you know, by the GPS.
They don't need any ground control. They would be pre-programmed with a destination and they could go, and, you know, then we came up with spoofers, you know, where we can spoof when the actual drone is in India, we can spoof that it is in some other country, maybe in China or something like that, and it would get lost, and, you know, then to come out of the spoofing, they came up with AI-based technology like vision-based technology with waypoints, etc., and now we are actually saying that, you know, to ensure that the waypoint is eliminated, we have to use hard-kill techniques like shooting it down, using various weapon systems, etc., so the cat and mouse game keeps going up.
That's why it's very essential that when the government buys these products, they buy from an Indian IP ownership company because any upgrade of this software level and all that can be done very, very fast if it is indigenously designed and developed. Just imagine if you buy it from a foreign country, they're going to ask for an arm and a leg, and for all you know, they'll say, listen, I can't upgrade your product, so what do you do? You go and buy new products, but in India, you know, I think we have a very open architecture where these evolving threats are accommodated very easily and they are upgraded, you know, everything, even if it's a hardware upgrade, we are talking to them at a reasonable price, we upgrade them.
So that's why I think this is very essential that the, you know, the company, the country goes on the same path as the IDDM and procurement. So yeah, so because of these changes that were happening, the order flow wasn't happening. They're still finalizing, I think, but thanks to the operations in Ukraine, the actual threat is now crystallized, the specs are finalized, and when they come out with this, I think significant orders will come in for even anti-drone systems.
Yes, sir. Thanks for the elaborate answer. And so can we assume, can you assume that there is no scarcity of the demand, but just order has been delayed by some time because of some geopolitical issues? And if your answer is yes, then can we assume that after this first half, order inflow will pick up and for the next year, we will have a good amount of inflow? And also, we have previously talked that from FY 2027, we will also receive some order inflow from the U.S. as well because we have set up in the U.S. as well. So what is, can you throw some light on this?
So your first question was, yes, I think H2 will have a significant order inflow. There's no doubt about that. And we expect the order inflow considerably for anti-drone systems in addition to simulators. And we are expecting, you know, we hope that we win as many as possible out of that. With respect to the USA thing, I think USA, very interesting developments are happening as we speak. As you know, we acquired this company called ARI. They have a full-fledged setup in, you know, of a network of dealers in America, in South America, and, you know, other countries. So we are interacting with them. In fact, they also have in Japan, Far East also they're pretty strong. So we are talking with their vendors who are actually already engaged with the armed forces there to push our products, you know, from the US and even from India.
So we expect that, you know, by FY 2027, there will be significant orders coming in. And we will be able to supply to not only the U.S., but South America also through the U.S. contract.
Mr. Patel, may we request you to return to the queue? There are several participants waiting for their turn. We'll now move to our next question. That's from Darshil Jhaveri from Crown Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good morning, sir. Hopefully, I'm audible.
Yes, please.
Yeah. Hi, sir. So a lot of my questions are nearly answered. So I just wanted to know, like in terms of order flow, so we are already in negotiations and those parts are delayed. But what about the emergency procurement? Is there a sizable opportunity available there also? And what would be the timeline for us out there, sir?
So, you know, with the government requirements, they issue the RFP and repeat. Typically, they will have to finish the procurement by March. Even though there have been cases where they have extended it to June and September, but typically the mandate is that, you know, please complete the placing of the orders by before March. And most of the cases, most of the time, it so happens that they are able to complete the order placement sometimes even in Q3. They issue the thing and within 45 days try to complete it. There have been cases like that. So our confidence is that all the orders should flow in for will be concluded before March end. And whatever orders they then get, you know, they should be placed by them. So did you ask any other question other than this?
No, one more question I have is regarding our export opportunity. Like I think last year was very good for our export. And this year we have INR 100 crore in, I think, our order book for export. So I understand Indian government has been a bit slow, but what about other places? Because I think drones right now are the in thing where every country wants them, right? So it's a big threat also to every country. So how are we placed in, you know, being able to get a newer market in export? Are there any plans, sir? Like how can you just, you know, elaborate a bit more on the export opportunity and what is our role in that, sir?
So exports in terms of, you know, we have been getting a lot of inquiries and a lot of visits in the past few months, and especially after Operation Sindoor, you know, the government of India has been doing a considerable job. And we are getting inquiries for anti-drone systems also. And we think that H2, we should be getting the second half, we should be getting some orders in export. But FY 2027 will be a significant year for in terms of exports. So yes, exports will start coming in H2 is what our feeling is. And they will be both for simulators and for anti-drone systems. But a big year for us will be FY 2027 for in terms of exports.
So, for the content file, which all countries are there, is there some qualification required to, you know, like we have those qualifications like any, like in general in pharmacy, U.S. FDA or something like that, like we have for any country that, you know, we have qualified to be able to provide to these and what all countries are we targeting to expose to, sir?
So, you know, we broadly speak in terms of region. We talk about Africa, we talk about the Middle East, and we talk about CIS countries. And we're also now looking at Southeast Asia. So these are the major regions that, you know, for obvious reasons, you know, some countries don't like being named if the negotiation is going on or something like that. Again, there is secrecy involved in that in the sense that, you know, if they know that we are buying simulators for this product, they will know we have this equipment. And if they know that we have this equipment, they'll also be able to assess that this is the strength of our equipment. Even though, you know, most of the times, you know, Wikipedia gives a good rate, but they expect us not to reveal it. So we honor that.
We never name the countries. We think that in these four regions, significant orders will be coming. Of course, the U.S. and the South America market and the NATO countries will be something that next year we expect some orders to come through in that region also.
Thank you. Our next question is from Amit Dixit of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Mr. Dixit.
Am I audible ?
Yes, sir.
Yeah. Good morning and thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions from my side. The first one is that recently Defense Secretary has been on air mentioning that simulators are the way forward for expedited procurement of defense equipment and part of reforms in DAP. Are we seeing some traction from the government, some feelers? I know these are early days, but still are there some feelers that, you know, in long term, there would be an enhanced use of simulators in various platforms, including air and navy? That is my first question.
Yeah. So yeah, I think there is no doubt about that. You know, in fact, if you go a little earlier in September 2021, it's in the government on government website, the government issued a framework for simulation policy. So, you know, in the simulation framework, they very clearly said, you know, you have to start moving all the training onto simulators and also, you know, where procurement, if, you know, simulated equipment can be done, then we should simulate the equipment and, you know, go ahead faster with the procurement cycle. So I think there is no doubt about that. And, you know, we have seen that growth in that front from 2021. If you see 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, we have, you know, we have really, really grown from 60, 160, 430 to 930 crore. So the growth has been significant for us.
We expect that thing to continue. Again, you know, as I keep you know cautioning our investors that the quarter and quarter growth and even sometimes year on year may not happen, but overall the trajectory is set that the government is going to increase more and more. I personally think maybe we have done 7%-8% of the simulation market till now. There is another 92%-93% that still needs to be bought in terms of simulators. So there is a long, you know, playing game, a long game still there for both anti-drone systems and simulators. Of course, you know, anti-drone system. But you are asking for simulators. I think there's a huge still market pending to be tapped there.
The second question is on the recent acquisition that we have done for the company in UAVs and loitering munitions. Now, while it dovetails nicely with our or complements our existing offering in ADS, but what is the use case over there? I mean, what kind of UAVs, loitering munition market we are trying to enter and how much time it will take us to commercialize that particular product? And if you can highlight some of the products that we are actively looking at in this particular domain.
So, you know, again, just to go back a little in time, you know, in 2014, we looked at the field in 2018. We wanted to get into drones. But we saw there were so many players there and we thought, you know, listen, I think this is a winner's curse. Even if they win, you'll never make money in drones. And we moved to anti-drone systems. And there again, you know, there was nobody working on that. As we say, sometimes the signal silences the signal. So we went into that and that paid off well. But in terms of drones, I know in 2024, when we looked, government was blacklisting companies for using Chinese parts. And we think, why was the R&D not done? Why was this not done? And we consciously took a decision that we have to get into this field.
And then when we started looking around into the ecosystem, almost everybody said, "Ashok, these parts are not available except from a company, you know, like a company called Vector Technics who are actually supplying, but their supply is on and off." But in a strange coincidence, a week later, Vector Technics approached us for investment and, you know, we looked into them. We saw their capabilities and we said, "We'll go ahead and invest." So now these guys are actually, so our intention was to get into drone system to accelerate the indigenization of complete systems. So when we got, so now we are firmly into the ecosystem of drones. Now we were looking at what are the other things that the government of India will need in case of war. So we were looking at loitering munitions and TISA has a proven track record.
They've executed order with the DRDO, so they have the technology, they have the product. But again, we are doing some very, very high end. Again, again, as I say, that we do not want to sell to the Indian government that is just doing well, but it should be, we aim to become world global number one in that, so we are investing a lot of money now as we speak, and we expect that in a year and a half, the loitering munitions version should be ready for full-fledged demonstration and, you know, competition with other players in the field, and we obviously expect it to do better than others in terms of specs, et cetera. Yeah.
Sir, what kind of drones we are looking at? We are looking at kamikaze drones.
Kamikaze drones. Yeah. This one is my only kamikaze. Yeah.
Okay. Got it. Thank you so much, sir. And all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up from Garvit Goyal of Seven Islands PMS. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the follow-up. Regarding the emergency procurements, which are happening now, due to which regular procurements are delayed. So at the same time, we are saying we will get some orders in the future in emergency procurement. So I'm not understanding why did not we get these orders as emergency procurements are currently happening, right?
No. So they have just started, Garvit. And it's not that they have placed, finished, exhausted all the funds. We expect that orders will continue to Q2, Q3, even Q3, the orders will continue. And typically, they have to close the placing orders by March of the year. So I think if they have placed, they have placed for very few emergency procurement till now. But the real emergency procurement has to go in a big way to starting in the next few weeks.
Thank you. We'll take a next question from Sanjeev Zarbade of Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, sir, for taking my question. Sir, could you give us an idea about what kind of opportunity is there for us in the emergency procurement plan of the government?
Our expectation is, you know, the emergency procurement will happen in the field of anti-drone systems significantly. I think there is one thing, and they would prefer anti-drone system with hard kill capability. So Zen has been able to, and you know, typically hard kill, unmanned hard kill would be better in the sense that, you know, you don't want people to be actually holding a weapon and firing because you become a target very easily. People detect where you are. So you should be able to shoot and scoot, they call it. You know, you shoot from your weapon and then you move from there. So we have this remote control weapon station, which are easily loadable onto the vehicles, and we have tested them with most of the vehicles that the Government of India is using.
And they are working perfectly well, that, you know, autonomously, you know, I mean, remotely you give the coordinates of the drone. It can so through the anti-drone system; it is able to point and shoot them down. So I think this hard kill, the soft kill and hard kill system of anti-drone systems is where the big market is going to be. And I think they'll form part of the emergency procurement. And I think there we stand a good chance of getting some orders. Yeah.
But would it be, would you be able to quantify the overall?
In fact, we do not know how much of procurement will be going on this field. So till the tenders come out, you know, we'll be able to compute our likelihood and then maybe come up with the figure.
Okay. And sir, my question regarding the other expenditure, which has fallen very sharply on a quarter-on-quarter basis. So are there some expenditure that we book in the fourth quarter largely?
Yeah. I think I'll put this question for Ashok. He'll say.
Yes, sir. So reason for reduction in the other expense, if you see in percentage terms, it is 7.35% in Q1 FY 2026. And in Q1 FY 2025, it was 5.5%. So in percentage terms, it has not reduced. So most of the other expenses are semi-variable in nature. So other expenses reduced from INR 14.10 crore to INR 8.16 crore. In last quarter, it was on a higher side, significantly on higher. So the reasons are in the last quarter in Q4, there was a substantial amount of professional charges and incentives, which was variable in nature and linked with the revenue. And also last year, consumptions of stores and spare parts were on a higher side. Last year, there were some exceptional one-off expenses like impairment of investments, return of advances, provision for expected credit loss, provision for the warranty charges.
So these are the five to six reasons due to which in Q4 it was on a higher side. But compared to Q1 FY 2025, it is in the same level only.
Thank you. Our next question is from Aditya Moona from YES Securities. Please go ahead. Mr. Moona, could you please unmute your microphone and ask your question?
Hi. I'm audible?
Yes.
Yes. So my question one was regarding the translation of order book towards execution in Q2. Currently, our order book is about INR 750 crore. Out of that, what are we expecting to be executed in Q2 FY 2026? Second question was towards the order book. One is the INR 650 crore of orders that we are expecting in the next two months. Other than that, for H2, what is our order intake that we are expecting and the execution timeline for that? Hello?
Yeah. So Aditya, so on question of Q2, we won't be able to give the specific guidance on a quarter on that. And order-wise, as we discussed, we are expecting around INR 650 crore by September for the simulators order.
Okay. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah.
Other than the INR 650 crore in September order, is there any other orders that we're also expecting in H2?
No. As we mentioned, apart from this anti-drone system that is under the emergency procurement, that we don't know whether it can happen or not by September.
And for FY 2027, what is our order expectation? Is it something that's going to be much larger than FY 2026? And.
I think.
Hello?
One second.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Sir, we are not able to hear you.
FY 2027, we expect the orders to be much, much larger than what we have done in FY 2026. It will be significantly. Again, you know, we have to accommodate what we are projecting that by implication when we are saying INR 6,000 crore, we do expect 2027 and 20 28 to be very, very large years compared to 2026.
Okay. That'll be all. Thanks.
Yeah.
Thank you. Our next question is from Jatin Jadhav from Sahasrar Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes.
Actually, all my questions have been answered. I just had a small suggestion, sir. So there's a company called in the U.S. called Duality AI, and I've been to your facility and I've seen how beautiful simulator software you make, so what their product is essentially, they make a digital twin of the environment and use that to generate synthetic data for training and testing AI models for counter drone, and as well as they use it as a simulators for the FPV drone pilots also, so this perfectly fits in Zen Technologies 4A, and while doing research, a lot of U.S. military, what do you call, the bases have given them orders, so it does two things. It gives you data to train AI models also, and it gives you a simulation platform also for your FPV and kamikaze drones, so it's something you could look into, sir.
That's pretty much it from my side. I had no particular question. They all have been answered.
Thank you so much. I just noted it down, Duality AI. And you just send an email also just to give more information. But we definitely love these suggestions from our investors. I think we are looking out much beyond what others are doing. We'll definitely try to track on this. But again, just to, you know, get everybody up to date, we are extremely focused on AI at this point in time. And we have launched a program within the company called Transforming Zen into an AI native company where, you know, everywhere, just not the products, just not the R&D, but across operations, across finance, across IT infrastructure, across logistics, everywhere, AI is being used and everyone is getting exposed.
You know, the results are, some of the results, you know, something which used to take weeks is being done in, you know, a few seconds, if not a few minutes, if not seconds. Things are really, really exciting on the front of AI. Everybody is in a learning mode at this point in time. I think you will see the benefits of AI finding the tech in terms of not only just the product and building LLM within our simulators, which are learning and becoming better as customers interact with them, but across board, across finance. I think this will be a very, very exciting time at Zen. We as Zenists are very, very hypercharged. Thanks. We really appreciate these inputs. You know, we can always, these are give us ideas.
Sometimes we can also not only get the idea, but also collaborate with these kinds of companies. Appreciate it, Jatin. Thank you so much.
Thank you. So just to add a question. So where should I mail you the details on the IR?
It is investors at Zen Technologies.
All right. Thank you so much, sir. All the best.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Harshit Kapadia of Elara Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good morning. So just a few questions from my side. So you mentioned in the start of the call, some orders got, some revenues got deferred because of which you were not able to meet your target. I probably have missed it. Can you quantify that value? And secondly, is this that you have already done the production and the customer has not taken that delivery of that? That's a reason why it got, you know, deferred? Or is it that you are expecting some orders to come in and you will execute and then it was supposed to deliver?
No, the orders have been executed, almost executed by this time as we speak. The delay in the order execution was because of the changed specs from the customer. So they were changing till the last moment. And we had to accommodate that. So it was the revenue deferred, not the order revenue. Actually, revenue recognition. So now we'll be recognized in Q2, whatever we have deferred in Q1.
So, what can you quantify that number, sir?
A little more than between INR 60-INR 70 crore is my estimate on that.
Okay. Secondly, sir, on the INR 650 crore simulator order, what kind of simulator orders you are expecting, sir, in this particular quarter?
These are army-based simulators. I don't want to mention the product for obvious reasons. You know, they are army. They're not navy or air force, but mostly army simulators.
Okay. Any particular area in army you can specify? Is it guns, tanks, anything, any color you can provide?
You know, I think as the orders come across, you know, these are the little sensitive things, Harshit, and you know, sometimes the orders don't like it, so you know, let us try to get the orders in hand and then check with them and then announce it.
Fair enough, sir. This was from my side. I wish you all the best. Thank you.
Thank you, Harshit. I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question is from Nirmal Rawat Singh from Axis Max Life. Please go ahead.
Nirmal, we can hear you.
Sir, good morning. Am I audible?
Yeah, now you are.
Yeah. I'm an individual investor, not from A xis.
Before, we are not entertaining individual investors. I'm joking. Go ahead.
Yeah. So my question was on kamikaze drone. Okay. And there was this article in ET about a startup from BITS Hyderabad. Two guys, you know, they made kamikaze drone and they sold it to the Indian Army. So my question was that we also have got orders on kamikaze drones or not?
No, so we didn't get the order. So, you know, this was our DRDO project that TISA, our acquisition, had done. They had executed for DRDO. So that has to be productionized and, you know, then offered to, you know, the end user who bought it from them and to other Indian users and overseas also. But we haven't sold anything to the end user till now. It's in R&D stage at this point in time. Yeah, but with Pilani Hyderabad, you know, we have seen the article. Well, you know, we're pretty excited if they have achieved what they have said, which looks very, very exciting actually. Yeah.
Yeah, sir. Definitely, you could consider collaborating with them.
Yeah, definitely. You know, one thing again, very frankly, Nirmal, what we want to do is if there are companies that have a better product than us and, you know, they have a head, we would definitely want to collaborate with them. We don't want to offer something that is second, you know, second grade or which is not the best in the world. It's best in India. That is the minimum criteria. So definitely, you know, if BITS, they have a product that is better than us, we would love to collaborate. And, you know, it's quite surprising because Vector is the only guy who does the indigenous components in India. They are also not aware of these guys. So, you know, we need to really where did they get the components from, etc. But if they have achieved, it's quite significant.
We would love to collaborate with the best in the field.
Yes, sir. That's my question. Thank you.
Thank you, Rawat.
Thank you. Our next question is from Manish Gupta of Equinox Investment Advisors. Please go ahead. Mr. Manish Gupta, could you please unmute and ask your question?
Am I audible now?
Yes.
Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you very much for taking my question. Sir, with wars evolving more towards drones and anti-drones, particularly hard kill, so does Zen have the capability and technology for hard kill, sir? This is my first question.
Yeah. So, you know, we were, you know, there was, again, there was a kind of semi-trial where they called all the capable companies in India for demonstrations army had called. And we were the only company that actually took hard kill system with guns and all that to that particular trial that was maybe they called it a demonstration or something. But they called it actually trials. And so, yes, we are not only having anti-drone hard kill system. We are demonstrating it to our end users. And this capability is very deep with us. And it is being at various commands. They have seen the product, the remote control demonstration with surveillance. And they have really appreciated it. And I think, and I think hard kill is an area that we are really focusing on.
As we go into the next few quarters, you will see some very good announcements in this area that, you know, these are the new products that, again, these are all in consultation with the customers. Customers have been saying that we want this, and so we are going and accommodating their request. The hard kill is one area we really want to dominate by offering the best in the world, so to your question, yes, Zen is in a big way into hard kill, and I think that will be a significant area of investment in the coming few quarters for us.
All right. So just as a follow-up, sir, in coming years and quarters, sir, what do you feel more optimistic about in terms of contribution to top line, whether it's going to be simulators or it's going to be anti-drone systems?
So I personally think that, you know, the anti-drone systems will keep catching up, will keep increasing. And so, you know, we may go as much as, you know, 40% or even 50% of the simulators. So I would say hard kill, when we say anti-drone system, we are trying to add other things also, like, you know, the hard kill system, including surveillance, everything, the cameras, the electronic optics. So when we start adding the non-simulator revenues, which should include all the, and even robotic automated systems, I think they will become a significant part compared to simulators. So I would like to classify not a simulator, the anti-drone system, but simulators, the non-simulators. I think they may become as big as 50/50.
All right and, Mr., second question is a pretty layman kind of a thing. I mean, compared to some advanced countries like Israel's Iron Dome and you know, we read them in media, how efficient they were, so where does India and particularly Zen stand in this kind of capability, sir?
You know, the feedback that we have got from our end users has been very, very positive, very encouraging in the sense that, you know, they were able to thwart all kinds of drone attacks. And we have so many testimonials saying that the products work extraordinarily. And, you know, we are very grateful that this product has been developed by an Indian company with completely indigenous technology. We got a lot of testimonials like that. And again, they also commented how focused and committed our staff were. They were there helping them, you know, trying to, wherever there were gaps, our guys were trying to help them. So I think overall, it's been a very, very good experience. And to your question, we definitely think we are in the top two or three in the world.
It's not that we are number one at this point in time. But that's our objective. How do we become number one? And we definitely need to improve the hard kill game where, you know, we try to integrate as we go ahead. That's again, I said, hard kill is the area of focus for us. How do we improve the missiles and other higher technologies to bring down the drones when we detect them? And especially that they are now becoming AI-based drones where they are doing vision-based attacks, etc. So given all this, yes, I think we are not there, but we'll definitely be there in the next maybe one or one and a half years. We should be there at the top of the game.
Thank you. We'd like to just update participants that we'll be closing the call in the next five minutes. We'll take our next question from Manan Bandur of Wallfort PMS. Please go ahead. Could you please unmute your microphone, sir, and ask your question? As there's no response, we'll move to our next participant. That's Krishna Doshi from Ashika Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. Since we've already mentioned the NATO countries in our con call today, I just wanted an update as to how much of an opportunity are we seeing from that side now that we know that NATO is planning this massive rearmament plan. So what kind of opportunities are we seeing there? Is it possible to quantify? And also, it will be more inclined towards which segment of us?
So one thing is NATO countries. The effective simulator is a big thing in the sense that the training and the requirements have gone up. And one thing, one hard reality that has hit all the NATO countries is that even though Ukraine has been really given the world's latest equipment and, you know, in terms of whatever you say, there's the tanks, the missiles, the handheld missiles, everything they were given, but still they did not stand a chance against Russia, which is predominantly using very old equipment. And, you know, the realization is that, you know, because of training, and we feel that because of that, there is a lot of focus on simulators as a requirement to take on any formidable enemy in the future. So yes, that is there.
The second is even anti-drone systems and drones also, you know, as we speak, our subsidiary Vector is talking about exporting to both America and Europe and very, very big names at that. So I think there's opportunity there. And of course, anti-drone systems. Anti-drone system is something that we will be pushing a lot. And again, once we expose it to their environment, we'll get real-time feedback. And I think our agility and speed of customizing the product to their needs is much, you know, much quicker than any of the competition that we have. I think it will be an overall holistic approach. All our products will be pushed in the NATO and U.S. market and South America also.
Thank you. We'll take our next question from Hitesh Chaudhari of ULJK Financial Services. Please go ahead.
Thank you for giving me an opportunity, ma'am. Actually, I was seeing on the operational side, the margins are fluctuating. So can you give light on which segment is fluctuating this EBITDA margin? Is it from anti-drone system or training simulators?
I'll let Afzal answer that.
So if you see the EBITDA margin, operational EBITDA margin is around 34.27% on a standalone basis. And overall EBITDA margin is around 52%. So if we exclude the other income, that it is coming around 34.27%. Our guidance is around 35%. As we guided earlier in the simulators, the EBITDA margin is a little bit on the higher side. And anti-drone system is a little bit on the lower side. But on an average, it is 35%. So in this quarter also, we achieved around 34.27%, almost near to 35% EBITDA. And on consolidated basis, yes, this time EBITDA margin itself is around 40% due to the good contribution from both our subsidiaries, ARIPL as well as UTS.
Thank you, sir. That's it from my side.
Thank you. Our next question is from Nikhil Purohit from Fident Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is just a follow-up on an early participant's question. So in the existing order book, 1050 crore, what are the timelines for execution and how much is executable by this year?
Sir you're on mute.
Afzal, when you...
Yes, yes.
It has an empty component also, so I'll let him answer.
So if you see, out of a total order book position is around INR 754 crore, out of which INR 148 crore is for the subsidiaries. For the Zen standalone basis, it is around INR 605 crore, out of which AMC is around INR 260 crore. If we deduct this 260 from 606 crore, then total equipment order is around 346 crore. This is purely equipment orders only. So this will be executed by at least Q3. Maybe most of the equipment orders will be executed in Q2, but yeah, few equipment orders will be spilled over to Q3 also.
Okay. And what order book are we targeting by year-end for our subsidiaries? Like if you could also give a breakup for the order book of these subsidiaries and throw some light on numbers like revenue EBITDA PAT for ARI or UTS, TISA, FY 2026. So what would you... Yeah.
Yeah, whatever is the standalone numbers in this year, you can add INR 250 crore in the consolidation as a top line. Maybe from the ARIPL, 170, and another is from the other subsidiaries around INR 80 crore. Obviously, it will be more than 250, but there will be an Ind AS effect, which will be knocked off. So after knocking off this effect, at the consolidated level, you can add INR 250 crore revenue from the subsidiaries. And EBITDA, this will be in line with 35% as per the Zen's benchmark. And profitability will be also 25% as per the benchmark of the Zen. And we have seen this in Q1 also. They have achieved the same. Yeah.
Got it. Got it. Just one last question. What will be the CapEx for FY 2026?
In FY 2026, there is no significant, maybe INR 40-INR 50 crore rupees CapEx will be there.
Okay. Got it. Those are my questions. Thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for today. I hand the call back to Mr. Ashok Atluri for closing comments.
Thank you, fellow investors. I really appreciate the interaction. And we expect, again, this year, we expect it to be muted, but next two years, I think we are very, very hopeful that they're going to be very exciting. As a further update, thanks to somebody bringing up the AI part, we are really, really working and getting AI into our products, our operations, everything. And that will start yielding significant results in the next few months. And we will probably keep you updated on that too. And thank you so much for the interaction and looking forward to the next earnings call with you. Thank you.
Thank you very much. On behalf of Zen Technologies Limited, that concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now click on the leave icon to exit the meeting. Thank you for your participation.